Doctors, Teachers, Journalists, Academics are being disciplined, hauled before disciplinary bodies and even sacked for criticising the slaughter in Gaza and, most heinous sin of all, for mentioning genocide. Arrayed against those professionals is a lobby promoting the notion that criticism of Israeli government policies is anti-Semitic, hence the need to censor commentary about the massacres in Gaza. (more…)
Category: Media
-
Look who’s committing genocide according to American media
China is guilty by investing in infrastructure, providing free education … and forcing tourists to pay to enter Xinjiang’s most sacred mosque. (more…)
-
Western media bias, Israeli apologetics, and ongoing genocide
I found it shocking that the New York Times published on January 17th no less than three opinion pieces by Jewish authors, unbalanced by a single Palestinian or principled critical voice. (more…)
-
Who leaked sensitive legal material to a Murdoch columnist?
In the 20th century a series of UK investigations, including the Leveson Inquiry, demonstrated that Murdoch newspapers had engaged in phone hacking, police bribery and resort to dodgy private investigators. (more…)
-
Reviving Australian Citizenship: What the government needs to do
Australian Citizenship should be revived as a positive unifying element in a cohesive multicultural society. The Australia Day citizenship ceremony controversy is just a sideshow. The real issue is the completely unacceptable waiting times for processing Australian citizenship applications. The Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison government trashed the good work of previous Coalition and Labor governments by pursuing regressive citizenship policies. There is a big restoration job to be done. (more…)
-
Israel now ranks among the world’s leading jailers of journalists. We don’t know why they’re behind bars
Israel has emerged as one of the world’s leading jailers of journalists, according to a newly released census compiled by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. (more…)
-
Some journalists’ lives are worth more than others
In politics, there is often no reward, only penalty, for being right, especially when you go against the messaging of the ruling elites. (more…)
-
The US and Australia: tethered to Israel’s genocide?
With Netanyahu now declaring Israel will not accept the creation of a Palestinian state the burning question is how the US will react. To complicate matters Netanyahu has also said that the war against Hamas will continue for months enlightening the world to the fact that the slaughter of civilians will continue. To this course of action Israel has been able to lock in US support. (more…)
-
‘Impartiality the biggest joke in journalism’: News staff rebel over Gaza
The contested concept of ‘impartiality’ lies at the heart of running battles between unionised staff and news organisations in Australia over coverage of Israel’s genocidal onslaught. (more…)
-
Me and Colin Rubenstein (AIJAC)
It is hard to see how it is in Australia’s interests to support Israel’s actions in Gaza. (more…)
-
Diplomacy, morality and media have failed the people of Gaza
Imagine this headline: “Brits bomb Belfast to obliterate IRA – 24,000 dead, 50,000 injured, all hospitals flattened – children limbless and starving”. (more…)
-
John Pilger, maverick journalist (1939-2023)
In a speech he made in Sydney in 2011, defending Julian Assange, John Pilger recalled how it was always impressed upon him when he was young that Australia was a brave country: that we stood up to authority, and we stood up for justice. Such national myths were at best half-truths, Pilger said, but in our political life, there was scant evidence of this. But now and then, an Australian came along who made such myths seem true. Julian Assange was such an Australian, he said. (more…)
-
No country for old men: Why ignore our elder statesmen?
I am currently reading a book by Jeffrey Sachs whose articles often grace these pages. I am struck by the wealth of his experience having advised governments over many years, and his ability to take a long view of world events, in particular the deterioration in the United States position in the world since the end of World War 2. But he, like many in his generation, is routinely ignored. I do not see his name listed as one of President Biden’s advisers. (more…)
-
John Menadue on Rupert Murdoch, the Last Mogul
We have a major problem with the damage that Rupert Murdoch has done to newspapers in Australia, and any self-respecting government should take steps to correct that as soon as possible. (more…)
-
The facts behind RNZ’s ‘Russian edits scandal’
The broadcaster’s response to my editing of international news stories amounted to a show trial, reflecting a malaise within mainstream media. (more…)
-
Corporate media leaves out the very insights that made John Pilger a man not afraid to speak truth to power
John Pilger, the investigative anti-war journalist who spoke up for China and humiliated the western corporate media, has died—and every single report on this in the western media I have seen has carefully omitted this fact. (more…)
-
Under the facade of journalism
How News Corp used fear, manipulation and division to campaign against the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. (more…)
-
Three extraordinary Australian journalists: Burchett, Pilger and Assange -An update
They span three generations and give their country reason to be enormously proud, writes Rick Sterling. All have depended on freedom of the press, which is now at stake. (more…)
-
China: Perspectives beyond the mainstream media
China looms large in the Australian psyche. On a practical level, what happens in China largely determines the success of global action to deal with climate change, the profitability of our rural economy and the financing of our universities. Our national leaders are concerned about rising tensions in our region and the interplay of US-China relations. How are we to find our way through media doom and gloom and come to grips with the reality of China? (more…)
-
Big media outlets ‘lack balance’ in Gaza reporting
Five out of six major Australian media outlets have substantially imbalanced reporting when it comes to covering the Gaza conflict, new research claims. (more…)
-
Beyond good and evil: The mainstream media and stable relations with China
By going beyond the good and evil binary, the Australian media could play a more constructive role in fostering enduring stability between Australia and China, delineating a path that maintains Australia’s safety and integrity. (more…)
-
Courage and conscience: It’s time for independence in media reporting on China
For the sake of Australia’s national interest, and for journalistic integrity that will be judged by history, can mainstream media maintain independence from short-term, vulgar political and geopolitical influence and interference, especially with regard to reporting about China? (more…)
-
Deception: Radicalised groups are infiltrating Australian democracy in your town
West Australia’s council elections seem a strange place to pinpoint a warning about American radicalising political games infiltrating the Australian landscape. While it is strange, it is nonetheless important. (more…)
-
What was Parliament doing as the earth boiled?
On the day on which the Earth recorded a global average surface temperature of more than 2 degrees centigrade for the first time since records began what was the Australian Parliament and media doing? (more…)
-
‘Is that Orwellian or Kafkaesque enough for you?’ The Guardian removes Bin Laden’s ‘Letter To America’
The Guardian has long promoted itself as a valiant publisher of news and analysis that holds the powerful to account. It is a thing of wonder that the Guardian appends the following comment beneath news pieces: ‘Our quality, investigative journalism is a scrutinising force at a time when the rich and powerful are getting away with more and more.’ For over twenty years, Media Lens has shown how false is this claim. (more…)
-
White House fears pause in fighting will let journalists see what’s been happening in Gaza
Israel and Hamas have reportedly agreed to a four-day ceasefire which will entail the release of 50 hostages held by Hamas in exchange for 150 hostages held by Israeli forces. (more…)
-
White Man’s Media: The Chinese warship sonar incident
What a feast of anti-China stories we have had again from the Coalition and our media over the incident between HMAS Toowoomba and a Chinese PLA-N destroyer. (more…)
-
Antisemitism and criticism of Israel: open letter to Julian Leeser MP
Shocking discrimination suffered by Jews in the past does not give Israel a warrant to make victims of others. You say anti-Zionism is a cover for antisemitism. Let me tell you why your view is wrong. (more…)
-
Who do you serve? The non-trial of David McBride
“Today I serve my country. And the question I have for you, Anthony Albanese is, ‘Who do you serve?’” – David McBride (more…)
-
Is a re-set likely in our media’s China coverage?
Andy Park, the host of Drive on ABC Radio National, asked one of his guests the following question about Albanese’s visit to China: ‘Scoring an invitation to go to Beijing is obviously a coup for Mr Albanese. Obviously, much was said and done under the table diplomatically speaking. … Do you think the average Australian thinks it’s the right direction for Australia’? This is a good question indeed. (more…)